? What was detaining him? Suppose anything
should happen--it would kill her now--yet nothing could go wrong on
the eve of her wedding-day. She would not believe it. Stanwick would
not dare go to Rex with such a story--he would write it--and all
those things took time. With care and caution and constant watching
she would prevent Rex from receiving any communications whatever until
after the ceremony; then she could breathe freely, for the battle so
bravely fought would be won.

"If to-morrow is as bright as to-day, Pluma will have a glorious
wedding-day," said Bessie Glenn, smiling up into the face of a
handsome young fellow who was fastening a rosebud she had just given
him in the lapel of his coat with one hand, and with the other tightly
clasping the white fingers that had held the rose.

He did not notice that Pluma stood in the curtained recesses of an
adjoining window as he answered, carelessly enough:

"Of course, I hope it will be a fine, sunshiny day, but the
indications of the weather don't look exactly that way, if I am any
judge."

"Why, you don't think it is going to rain, do you? Why, it will spoil
the rose-bower she is to be married in and all the beautiful
decoration. Oh, please don't predict anything so awfully horrible; you
make me feel nervous; besides, you know what everybody says about
weddings on which the rain falls."

"Would you be afraid to experiment on the idea?" asked the impulsive
young fellow, who always acted on the spur of the moment. "If
to-morrow were a rainy day, and I should say to you, 'Bess, will you
marry me to-day or never?' what would your answer be?"

"I should say, just now, I do not like 'ifs and ands.' Supposing a
case, and standing face to face with it, are two different things. I
like people who say what they mean, and mean what they say."

Pluma saw the dazzling light flame into the bashful young lover's eyes
as he bent his head lower over the blushing girl who had shown him the
right way to capture a hesitating heart.

"_That_ is love," sighed Pluma. "Ah, if Rex would only look at me like
that I would think this earth a heaven." She looked up at the bright,
dazzling clouds overhead; then she remembered the words she had
heard--"It looked like rain on the morrow."

Could those white, fleecy clouds darken on the morrow that was to give
her the only treasure she had ever coveted in her life?

She was not superstitious. Even if it did rain, surely a few
rain-drop